AUGUST 22Today in Food History

On this day in:

1647 Denis Papin is born (died c. 1712). The French physicist who invented the pressure cooker (Papin's Digester) in 1679.

1865 William Sheppard of New York City received the first U.S. patent for liquid soap (patent No. 49,561).

1867 Charles Francis Jenkins was born (died June 5, 1934). An inventor who is best known as an early television pioneer. Among his many inventions was a cone-shaped drinking cup.

1867 Maximilian Bircher-Benner was born. He was a Swiss doctor who developed the cereal product 'Muesli,' which is similar to Granola. (Traditional Muesli Recipe)

1911 Ole Evinrude, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin received a patent for an outboard motor for boats.

1939 The first U.S. patent (No. 2,170,531) was issued for a disposable whipped cream aerosol container. Julius S. Kahn's patent was titled "An Apparatus for Mixing a Liquid with a Gas" and was specifically concerned with making whipped cream, using a ordinary soda bottle.(Whipping Cream Kitchen Tips)

1950 Hormel registered the "Spam" trademark (first used in 1937) for its canned meat product.(Spam Trivia and Facts)

1965 Ellen Church died (born Sept 22, 1904). The first airline stewardess. (See May 15, 1930)

1970 Giada De Laurentiis was born in Italy. American chef, cookbook author and TV cooking show host ('Everyday Italian', 'Giaca At Home', etc.)

1970'Spill The Wine' by Eric Burdon & War hit number 3 on the charts.

2004 Sonya Thomas won $500 and a trophy belt at the World Lobster Eating Contest in Kennebunkport, Maine. She ate 9.76 pounds of lobster meat (38 lobsters) in 12 minutes. She also has set records for eating hard boiled eggs, and pork & beans (8.4 pounds in 2 minutes 47 seconds). She weighs only 105 pounds.

2007 A 12 year-old boy in Manchester, England was charged with assault for throwing a cocktail sausage at a 74 year-old man.